Observational consequences of the Standard Model Higgs inflation variants

We consider the possibility to observationally differentiate the Standard Model (SM) Higgs driven inflation with non-minimal couplingto gravity from other variants of SM Higgs inflation based on the scalar field theories with non-canonical kinetic term such as Galileon-like kinetic term and kinetic term with non-minimal derivative coupling to the Einstein tensor. In order to ensure consistent results, we study the SM Higgs inflation variants by using the same method, computing the full dynamics of the background and perturbations of the Higgs field during inflation at quantum level. Assuming that all the SM Higgs inflation variants are consistent theories, we use the MCMC technique to derive constraints on the inflationnoary parameters and the Higgs boson mass from their fit to WMAP7+SN+BAO data set. We conclude that a combination of a Higgs mass measurement by the LHC and accurate determination by the PLANCK satellite of the spectral index of curvature perturbations and tensor-to-scalar ratio will enable to distinguish among these models. We also show that the consistency relations of the SM Higgs inflation variants are distinct enough to differentiate the models.

Cosmological Constraints on the Higgs Boson Mass

For a robust interpretation of upcoming observations from PLANCK and LHC experiments it is imperative to understand how the inflationary dynamics of a non-minimally coupled Higgs scalar field with gravity may affect the determination of the inflationary observables. We make a full proper analysis of the WMAP7+SN+BAO dataset in the context of the non-minimally coupled Higgs inflation field with gravity. For the central value of the top quark pole mass m_T=171.3 GeV, the fit of the inflation model with non-minimally coupled Higgs scalar field leads to the Higgs boson mass between 143.7 and 167 GeV (95% CL). We show that the inflation driven by a non-minimally coupled scalar field to the Einstein gravity leads to significant constraints on the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio when compared with the similar constraints tensor to from the standard inflation with minimally coupled scalar field. We also show that an accurate reconstruction of the Higgs potential in terms of inflationary observables requires an improved accuracy of other parameters of the Standard Model of particle physics as the top quark mass and the effective QCD coupling constant.

From WMAP to Planck: Exact reconstruction of 4- and 5-dimensional inflationary potential from high precision CMB measurements

We make a more general determination of the inflationary observables in the standard 4-D and 5-D single-field inflationary scenarios, by the exact reconstruction of the dynamics of the inflation potential during the observable inflation with minimal number of assumptions: the computation does not assume the slow-roll approximation and is valid in all regimes if the field is monotonically rolling down its potential. Making use of the {em Hamilton-Jacobi} formalism developed for the 5-D single-field inflation model,we compute the scale dependence of the amplitudes of the scalarand tensor perturbations by integrating the exact mode equation. We analyze the implications of the theoretical uncertainty in the determination of the reheating temperature after inflation on the observable predictions of inflation and evaluate its impact on the degeneracy of the standard inflation consistency relation.

WMAP 5-year constraints on lepton asymmetry and radiation energy density: Implications for Planck

In this paper we set bounds on the radiation content of the Universe and neutrino properties by using the WMAP-5 year CMB measurements complemented with most of the existing CMB and LSS data (WMAP5+All),imposing also self-consistent BBN constraints on the primordial helium abundance. We consider lepton asymmetric cosmological models parametrized by the neutrino degeneracy parameter and the variation of the relativistic degrees of freedom, due to possible other physical processes occurred between BBN and structure formation epochs. We find that WMAP5+All data provides strong bounds on helium mass fraction and neutrino degeneracy parameter that rivals the similar bounds obtained from the conservative analysis of the present data on helium abundance. We also find a strong correlation between the matter energy density and the redshift of matter-radiation equality, z_re, showing that we observe non-zero equivalent number of relativistic neutrinos mainly via the change of the of z_re, rather than via neutrino anisotropic stress claimed by the WMAP team. We forecast that the CMB temperature and polarization measurements observed with high angular resolutions and sensitivities by the future Planck satellite will reduce the errors on these parameters down to values fully consistent with the BBN bounds.

Constraints on non-thermal Dark Matter from Planck lensing extraction

Distortions of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropy maps caused by gravitational lensing, observable with high angular resolution and sensitivity, can be used to constrain the sterile neutrino mass, offering several advantages against the analysis based on the combination of CMB, LSS and Lyalpha forest power spectra. As the gravitational lensing effect depends on the matter distribution, no assumption on light-to-mass bias is required. In addition, unlike the galaxy clustering and Lyalpha forest power spectra, the projected gravitational potential power spectrum probes a larger range of angular scales, the non-linear corrections being required only at very small scales. Taking into account the changes in the time-temperature relation of the primordial plasma and the modification of the neutrino thermal potential, we compute the projected gravitational potential power spectrum and its correlation with the temperature in the presence of DM sterile neutrino. We show that the cosmological parameters are generally not biased when DM sterile neutrino is included. From this analysis we found a lower limit on DM sterile neutrino mass m_s >2.08 keV at 95% CL, consistent with the lower mass limit obtained from the combined analysis of CMB, SDSS 3D power spectrum and SDSS Lyalpha forest power spectrum ($m_{ u_s}>1.7$ keV). We conclude that although the information that can be obtained from lensing extraction is rather limited due to the high level of the lensing noise of Planck experiment, weak lensing of CMB offers a valuable alternative to constrain the dark matter sterile neutrino mass.